Syrian government and opposition have not agreed a date for a third round of negotiations in Geneva at the final session of the second round. The UN-mediated talks were conducted in a tense confrontational manner with little tangible progress.

The 90-minute meeting between the delegations on Saturday came
the sixth and final scheduled day of the second round of
negotiations.

"It was a short, tense session, dominated by differences over
how to tackle the issues of violence and political transition.
[UN special envoy for Syria Lakhdar] Brahimi set no date for a
third round, but he made it clear he expects there will be
one," opposition negotiator Ahmad Jakal said.

Brahimi later said he expects the third round to happen, but was
not prepared to set an exact date for it.

“I will discuss the situation with UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon. I believe we need to discuss it in a trilateral format
with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov,” he said.

He added that he has a four-point agenda for the next round,
which includes fighting against terrorism, a transitional
government, national institution building and national dialogue.
Brahimi said both the government and the opposition agreed to the
agenda.

The talks organized by the US and Russia have been very difficult
so far, to say the least. The Turkey-based opposition, which aims
to speak on the behalf of most of the opposition forces in Syria,
insists that the negotiations must focus on the stepping down of
Syrian President Bashar Assad and the forming of a new
transitional government.

The delegation from Damascus wants the security issues to be
tackled first. It’s not clear whether the opposition delegation
actually has clout on the ground in Syria enough to make the
armed opposition forces follow any agreement passed at the
negotiations.

As the talks remain stalled, the US has been voicing increasingly
irritated statements towards the Damascus. The latest threats
came Saturday from President Barack Obama, who said he is eyeing
steps to “apply more pressure on the Assad regime.”